Rail-chair



(No Model.)

G. E. DE GRANGE.

RAIL CHAIR.

No. 416,580. Patented Deo. 3, 1889.

W] TNESSES [N VEN TOR aw? Jed/filmy! ATTORNEY.

N. PETEHi Fhmo-Lllhognphnr. Washinglon. D. C.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE EDWARD DE GRANGE, OF NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA.

RAIL-CHAIR.

' SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 416,580, dated December 3, 1889. Application filed August 15, 1889. Serial No- 320,875. (No model.)

To a5! whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE EDWARD DE GRANGE, a citizen of the United States, residing at New Orleans, in the parish of Orleans and State of Louisiana, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Rail-Chairs; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the annexed drawings, making a part of this specification, and to the figures of reference marked thereon.

This invention has for its object to provide novel means for utilizing the old or worn rails of street-railways for the construction of a tramway wherein fresh or unworn tread-surfaces are presented to the traction-wheels of the tram-car.

The object of my invention I accomplish by a chair having the features of construction hereinafter described and claimed, whereby the old rails can be turned and inserted lengthwise into locking engagement with the chair, to present an unworn edge of the rail to the traction -wheels, as hereinafter described and claimed, reference being made to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a transverse sectional view of a tramway embodying my invention. Fig. 2 is an inside elevation of a portion of the tramway. Fig. 3 is an outside elevation of the same, showing one of the'chairs partly in section. Fig. 4 is an end elevation of the chair, and Fig. 5 a broken perspective view of a'rail.

In order to enable those skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will now describe the same in detail, referring to the drawings, where The numeral 1 indicates the rail of a railway, of which the surface 2 is the ordinary tread for the traction-wheels. When this tread becomesunduly worn or is so damaged as to render it useless or inefficient, the rail is discarded or reworked into other manufactures. To utilize these rails in the construction of a tramway for cars, I provide chairs such as indicated in Fig. 3. The chair is formed with a wide base 3, comprising a horizontal flange at each'side of a vertical web 4,

which is spread laterally at its upper portion and bifurcated to form two parallel flanges 5 and 6, the latter being shorter than the former and having its top edge beveled, as at 7, to form a seat for the usual beveled surface 8 of the old rail. The two flanges are separated to form a channel 9, which in width is coextensive with the thickness of the rail-body 10.

The chair at the base of the channel is formed with a lateral groove 12, to receive the projecting tongue 13 of the rail, whereby the rail and chair are tongued and grooved together at the base of the groove and lower edge of the rail when the latter is in place. The rails are engaged by sliding them lengthwise into the chairs, and the latter are provided with recesses 14:, to receive a crow-bar for detaching the chairs from the ties 15 when occasion demands.

The invention is useful in building eleva ted as well as surface roads, and it provides simple means whereby old, worn, or damaged rails areutilized without reworking them. The rails being engaged with the chairs, as described, the edges 16 of the rails constitute the new tread for the traction-wheels Having thus described my invention, what Iclaim is- 1. I11 combination, with a worn street-rail having at one side the lateral tongue, a chair having two flanges separated by a channel with a lateral groove at the base of the channel, which receives the tongue on the edge of the old street-rail, substantially as described.

2. A chair having two flanges, one shorter than the other, and provided with a beveled top edge and separated by a channel, at the base of which is a lateral groove, in combibination with the rail having at its lower edge a tongue engaging the groove and a beveled surface resting on the beveled top edge of the short flange, substantially as described.

In testimonywhereof I have hereunto subscribed my name in the presence of two witnesses.

GEORGE EDWARD DE GRANGE. 

